Spent the morning doing one of my favorite things - perusing the shops at the GemFaire, one of the best places to purchase beads, gemstones, pearls and sterling silver. Can't wait to make some jewelry!

This is a sample of what I got - Lots of Turquoise, purple and orange spiny oyster, pearls, coral, pearls, bronzite, green opal, brown lava stone, hematite... I am so excited about the turquoise and the spiny oyster - they are gorgeous!

I've always loved jewelry and doing artistic/crafty things in my spare time. I took a few jewelry making/silver-smithing classes during my higher education years. So much fun, but such an expensive hobby! I began beading about six years ago. Later, it got to where my daughter and I had more pieces of jewelry than clothes to wear them with! I needed to find a way to keep doing what I loved, without my jewelry collection getting any more out of control. Last December I discovered Etsy and set up my shop. Etsy has allowed me to bring in a little extra income doing something that I love to do in my spare time! I prefer to work with natural materials - gemstones, pearls, wood, leather and sterling silver.